Steering Committee
Executive Director (also responsible for Early Independence and Digital Workflows and Publishing):
Director Interdisciplinary Research and Research Funding:
- Simone Arnaldi
Director European Affairs and Conferences:
Director International Affairs and Communications:
- Agnieszka Wenninger
Co-founders of the Research
Network 1989
Timur Atnashev witnessed the
dismantling of the ‘Iron Felix’ on Moscow’s Lubjanka square in 1991. He
initially graduated from Moscow State University Lomonosoff (MGU, Sociology) and
the College Universitaire Francais de Moscou (CUF, Political Sociology). On a
scholarship awarded by the French Government, he studied at the Institute
d’Etude Politics (Sciences Po de Paris). Subsequently he was awarded a PhD
scholarship at the European University Institute, Florence (History and
Civilisation, 2003). Timur is a lecturer in political history at the Academy of
National Economics, Moscow. His primary interest is the history of perestroika
and the consequences of the USSR’s dissolution for the post-Soviet space.
Kasia Lach graduated from the University of Warsaw (MA, Law and Political Science and the University of Melbourne (MA International Commercial Law, PhD European Law, 2008). Kasia has been awarded an Australian Fellowship to the European University Institute (2005) and continued as a Visiting Researcher. Her research focus has been on constitutional sovereignty. She has also researched corruption and people trafficking in Central and Eastern Europe. Since completing her PhD, Kasia has been heading for a European career.
Gabriella Meloni graduated from the University of Rome, La Sapienza (MA Political Economy) and the European University Institute (PhD 2007). Formerly a research assistant in international economics at La Sapienza, she has also worked for IPALMO (Institute for the Relations between Italy and Countries of Latin America and the Middle East), the Fondazione De Gasperi and the Russian European Center for Economic Policy (RECEP, financed by the European Commission). Her primary interest has been relations between the EU, Russia and the Ukraine, including questions of Europeanisation. Since completing her PhD, Gabriella has been heading for an international career.
Special advisors to the Steering Committee
Jörg Forbrig is a Senior
Program Officer for Central and Eastern Europe with the German Marshall Fund of
the United States, based in Bratislava, Slovakia. Prior to that, he worked as a
research fellow at the Center for International Relations in Warsaw, Poland.
Educated at universities in Germany, Poland and Hungary, he completed an MA at
Central European University, Budapest; and a Ph.D. dissertation on civil society
in East-Central Europe at the European University Institute, Florence.
As a researcher and practitioner, Jörg has published widely on democracy, civil
society, and Central and Eastern European affairs. Recent books include
Reclaiming Democracy (2007), Revisiting Youth Political Participation
(2005), Ukraine after the Orange Revolution (with Robin Shepherd, 2005)
and A New Euro-Atlantic Strategy for the Black Sea Region (with Ronald D.
Asmus and Konstantin Dimitrov, 2004).
Yael Ohana has been working
in non-formal education and capacity building in the civil sector, especially
with youth related organizations, since 1995. At the Council of Europe, from
2000 to 2005, she was employed by the Directorate of Youth and Sport as an
educational advisor at the European Youth Centre Strasbourg, in which capacity
her main responsibilities included the management of priority work programmes,
including the facilitation of the work of statutory organs and the assessment of
grant and other applications for support, evaluation of programmes, the planning
and implementation of large scale events, assisting non-governmental
organisations to plan and implement educational training programmes, the
development and implementation of pilot training and course models for NGO
capacity building - regionally targeted provision, e.g. Central and Eastern
Europe, Russia, Caucasus, South East Europe and for specific target groups e.g.
minority groups.
Yael works as a freelance training and capacity building consultant providing
services in the youth, NGO capacity building, development and human resources
fields to clients such as Habitat for Humanity International, the German
Marshall Fund of the United States, the Council of Europe and Partners for
Democratic Change Slovakia. Her main thematic fields of interest and
specialization are human rights education, citizenship, minorities, peace,
conflict transformation, globalization, racism, youth participation in local and
regional life, democracy.
Piotr Pykel works for the
Polish broadcaster Telewizja Polsat in the International Relations Department.
He studied in the Czech Republic and Italy, graduating from Universita’ degli
Studi di Padova (with a thesis on Vaclav Havel). Returning to Poland in 1999, he
worked for two years on projects related to the post-communist transformation
and its impact on the Polish media. In 2000 he was part of the first group of
Polish researchers admitted to the European University Institute (History and
Civilisation Department). In November 2004 he defended his PhD thesis The
Final Stage. A Comparative Study of the Transition from Communist Rule to
Democratic Government in Poland and Czechoslovakia.
While at the EUI, Piotr also researched the history of Solidarity and other
trade unions in Poland (1980-1989) and the expulsion of Germans (or, rather,
people with German as first/native language) from Czechoslovakia after 1945. His
current research interests focus on post-1989 realities in Central and Eastern
Europe, in particular on issues that are defined by memory and change.
